Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2013
Abstract
In this paper, we demonstrate that in Ta/MgO/IrMn tunneling junctions, containing no ferromagnetic elements, distinct metastable resistance states can be set by field cooling the devices from above the Neel temperature (T-N) along different orientations. Variations of the resistance up to 10% are found upon field cooling in applied fields, in-plane or out-of-plane.
Well below T-N, these metastable states are insensitive to magnetic fields up to 2 T, thus constituting robust memory states. Our work provides the demonstration of an electrically readable magnetic memory device, which contains no ferromagnetic elements and stores the information in an antiferromagnetic active layer. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.